Review of Dhamaal

Dhamaal (2007)
6/10
Very Entertaining BUT for 2 big BUT's......
20 September 2007
Indra Kumar may never have made cinematic masterpieces but has always delivered good stellar, albeit very inspired entertainment.

However something made me feel that this movie may in fact not be inspired, because buffoonery a staple of Bollywood comedies since the 90's, is in fact "Very 90's and before that Very 60's" in Hollywood, there there have been the odd movie of this genre in recent years but those have all been copied thanks to one great man Mr. Neeraj Vohra(in partnership with Priyadarshan off course), I cant wait to see which movies hes plundered in his latest venture.

BUT the fact is I hoped and felt this movie was original, BUT for a long time since i can remember I WAS WRONG.

So wrong in fact that 15 mins into this movie i knew almost exactly the movies the major jokes in this movie, THIS MOVIE FOR ALL PRACTICAL PURPOSES IS A PERFECT MIXTURE OF 2 MOVIES ITS A MAD MAD MAD WORLD (1963) AND RAT RACE(2001), the STORY MORE FROM ITS A MAD.. WHILE SOME OF THE CHARACTERS AND SEQUENCES ARE FROM RAT RACE probably because entire sequences have been lifted from its A Mad... by Neeraj Vohra in the past (Bhagam Bhag), and they needed enough content to fill in the spaces.

When i realised this i started the normal routine of lamenting my fate, and the quality of the Hindi movie industry,(HEHE screw driver up the bums so funny), when were we ever going to have an original movie here, is it my fault that I've seen so many good English movies,(the stereotypical Bawa who loves his old car haha) THEY EVEN IMPRESSED ME BY HAVING VERY FEW DIALOGUES IN English AND HAVING THE STARTING CREDITS IN Hindi, don't tell me they've copied the scene down to the kick the bucket joke, how many people who speak even English know that (Ritiesh Deshmukh is hilarious hehhoohoho), blah blah blah.....

THEN THE OTHER BUT HIT ME......

BUT....

EVEN THOUGH I KNOW ALMOST ALL THE MAJOR GAGS IM STILL LAUGHIN Aren't I.

Somewhere along the line in the attempt at Indianizing the story and the script, this movie added something new to otherwise predictable blend, much like what we Indians did to Chinese food, its like to take Chinese recipes of Manchurian and noodles, cook it Indian style add masala and what not, then when you mix the two it doesn't merely taste like Manchurian plus noodles but something else.

And so i laughed, and laughed and laughed, the JOKES ARE VERY VERYT CHILDISH mind you and if you don't have the appetite for childish humour then this movie is not for you, a bunch of us friends loved it, but when my parents went for this movie despite me warning them in advance they found the movie toooo childish.

The acting is superb, everyone has put really fine inspired performances, again with an Indian twist to everything, SANJAY DUTT WAS COMPLETELY OFF COLOUR, (maybe his impending jail stint had something to do with it, and GOD WILLING THE LAW WILL PREVAIL AND HE SHALL SOON BE BACK THERE AGAIN).Still his bad performance was very very noticeable and a slight dampener.AFTER CASH AND HEY BABY RITIESH HAS GAINED BACK SOME RESPECT.

THE SONGS WERE CRAP TO PUT IT MILDLY AND BADLY USED WITH 2 OF THEM IN QUICK SUCCESSION IN THE BEGINNING.Luckily thanks to large amount of content (the original IAMMMMW was 3 hrs and RR was 2 hours) there were no more songs in this film.

Technically this movie was OK with some special effects and sound effect used effectively, writing directing was OK given the fact that this movie was completely inspired.

By the end of it this turned out to be a very entertaining movie for me despite its huge shortcomings.

ONCE AGAIN I WOULD LIKE TO WARN YOU THAT THIS MOVIE Isn't FOR EVERYBODY, its very childish (not a single adult joke), everyone is a buffoon, AS PROMISED there is no romantic track etc etc. Its utter and complete stupidity and if thats not your taste then this movie is not for you.

If however you do like such movies, haven't seen the originals, or are willing to overlook its blatant plagiarism, THEN GO AHEAD AUR KAR LO DHAMAAL.

-s blatant plagiarism, some jokes to stupid to be funny, pathetic songs.

+/-s the interval was needed for me (its not easy seeing so much stupidity at one go), SANJAY DUTT (I KNOW HE MADE A MISTAKE BUT WHEN YOU MAKE MISTAKES Aren't YOU SUPPOSED TO PAY FOR THEM).

+S great inspired acting all around, good technically (again credit to the originals), lots of hilarious jokes some with a very Indian soul.

total 6/10 (any movie thats so blatantly copied deserves no better, i really enjoyed myself but i assure you it wont be the same for everyone, despite the fact that i enjoyed i still pray and hope for something original to come out of bollywood).
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